Abstract
For many assembly operations, a robot hand is required to have dexterity, achieved by position, force and compliance control of high degrees of freedom, as well as tactile sensing. The pneumatic servo control, which was used by the authors to control the force and compliance of artificial fingers and an elbow, did not result in a sophisticated movement with a high response. This problem comes from the lack of airflow control in the conventional pneumatic servo valve. A new type of pneumatic servo system, developed in this study, comprises two analog airflow valves with an electromagnetically driven plunger. Analysis and evaluation of the system are conducted, and examples are given to show how to design an electro-pressure transformer using the system, and to show the force and compliance control of the manipulator-joints.
